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Tiger Woods Titleist Scotty Cameron TeI3 Tournament Used Putter
Considered the golf equivalent of "the mighty Excalibur, the sword that made a King of Arthur.” This putter is believed to be tournament used by golfing GOAT Tiger Woods at the beginning of his meteoric professional rise in the late 1990s. Equipped with a Certificate of Authenticity from Titleist and Woods’ initials engraved in the blade. Tiger's tournament used items are notoriously scarce and difficult to source. In addition, HBO's two-part documentary on Tiger Woods called "Tiger" in January 2021 should only fuel his collectibility.
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“The joy I get from winning a major championship doesn’t even compare to the feeling I get when a kid writes a letter saying, ‘Thank you so much. You have changed my life.’”
-Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods is widely regarded as one of the greatest golfers—and one of the most famous athletes—of all time. Woods has won 15 major championships (five Masters, four PGA Opens, three U.S. Opens, and three Open Championships).
As of this writing, he’s won 82 official PGA Tour events, and owns the record for lowest career scoring average and most career earnings of any player in PGA Tour history.
He was the top-ranked golfer in the world from August 1999 to September 2004 (264 weeks) and again from June 2005 to October 2010 (281 weeks). Woods will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2021.
ABOUT THE ASSET
The putter displays the Cameron name on the hosel, and a tiny stamped “T.W.” on the top. It is believed to have been used the early-1990, particularly in the 1998 Bell South Classic.
Woods gave the putter directly to his good friend and periodic golf partner, NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Andre Reed.
The putter comes with a certificate of authorization from Titleist, as well as a signed letter of authentication from Reed.
It shows signs of use, and the small dent in the shaft suggests an errant putt.
COMPARABLES
A replica Woods’ Scotty Cameron Newport 2 putter sold at auction for $154,928 in September of 2020, despite never seeing a round of PGA tour action.
High-end Woods memorabilia is rare, and generally priced as such. Even autographed shoes and shirts have ranged in price from $25,000 to $43,000.
ATHLETE TIMELINE
Written By Alan Goldsher
Tiger Woods: Listen Up, Duffers
We all have a golf-playing pal who insists on giving us a tip. Or two. Or three. Or 57.
“Your toes are pointed inward,” they’ll say. “Your backswing is flat,” they’ll say. “You’re dipping your front shoulder,” they’ll say.
Their intentions are good, but they’ve never broken 98, so you want to tell them to clam up, but golf is a genteel sport, and you don’t want to cause a scene on the course, so you pretend to listen attentively, you give them a polite smile and a nod, you readjust your toes about two millimeters, then you go about your business.
Then, after shooting a frustrating 102, you drive home and take a trip down the Tiger Woods rabbit hole. This helps you remember why you bother playing golf in the first place.
Maybe you’ll watch highlights from the ’02 Masters or the ’08 Open. Maybe you’ll peruse The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods, the memoir by his swing guru, Hank Haney. Maybe you’ll get lost in You Tube clips that compare his pre- and post-surgery form.
Or maybe you’ll read an interview. Or two. Or three. Or 57.
Because when Tiger discusses the game—as is 100% not the case with your know-it-all golf-playing pal—you can be comfortable knowing that whether he’s talking about driving, chipping, putting, prepping, competing, or just simply living, his words are of use. To that end, here are a couple thousand of words courtesy of golf’s GOAT, covering the span of his illustrious, magical, bumpy, inspiring career.
1989 (age 14): On what sets him apart
“My competitiveness. That’s what sort of brings me through in the clutch. When you have to make a putt, you make a putt. When you have to hit the shot, you hit the shot. You just sort of drop into another zone and block out everything.
1991 (age 15): On goals
“I don’t want to be the best Black golfer on the tour. I want be the best golfer on the tour.”
1992: (age 16): On being tabbed as golf’s next big thing
“It’s a pretty big burden, if you think about it. But I don’t think about it.”
1993: (age 17): On intimidation
“We had one tournament, the Junior Worlds, when I was 11-years-old, my first year in the 11- and 12-year-old age group. On the very first hole of the last day, I’m trying to win the tournament. It’s a par-4, and this 12-year-old kid drives to the green. It intimidated the hell out of me that day. I ended up beating him, and my dad and I had a long talk about that, and after that, nothing’s ever intimidated me.”
1994 (age 18): On expectations
“I’ve always had this one bonus to my personality: My expectations [for myself] are so high, no matter what anybody else expects, it’s going to be less than what I expect of myself. Plus, I really don’t give a darn what they think.”
1995 (age 19): On giving back
“I always try to not only help out African-Americans but minorities in general, or kids. Because you try to help everyone; don’t limit yourself to just one race. Just try to help everyone you can, and if you can do that, that’s wonderful. That’s what it’s all about.”
1996 (age 20): On his professional debut
“I’ve always figured, why go to a tournament if you’re not going there to try and win? There’s really no point in even going. That’s the attitude I’ve had my entire life, and that’s the attitude I will always have. As I’ve explained to my dad, second sucks. Third is even worse. I want to win. That’s my nature.”
1997 (age 21): On whether he’ll win multiple major tournaments
“If I play like I did at Augusta [in winning my first Masters], I think my chances are good. But unfortunately, golf is not always like that. You’re not always gonna have you’re ‘A’ game. You’re not gonna play well all the time. But I think the toughest thing about winning any kind of Grand Slam is the fact that you’re playing against the toughest field ever assembled. You’re playing on the toughest golf courses, and the conditions aren’t easy. And also, you’ve gotta have a lot of luck on your side. I had a few lucky breaks [at the Masters in] Augusta. I went from bogey to birdie, and two shot swings like that are huge, especially in a major.”
1998: (age 22): On how he was initially viewed by other professional golfers
“At first it was a little bit of jealousy, no doubt about that, because I was getting a lot of hype, and some of my endorsement deals were reported in public, and obviously people were gonna read ‘em, and know about ‘em. So yeah, there was a little jealousy because I [hadn’t] proved myself out there. I hadn’t hit a shot yet, and I got what I got. Plus, they didn’t know me as a person. They saw this kid come out here playing. But I proved to them that I could play the game, I won I think my fifth or sixth start, in Vegas, and I won two weeks later in Disney, so I won two times, got to the Tour Championship, so I proved to them that I could play out there with them.”
2002 (age 26): On the advice he gave Michael Jordan re: Jordan’s second NBA comeback
“I really wanted to make sure he was in the right place mentally. Physically he’s going to be the best judge of that, but mentally, you’re making a commitment to go ahead and see this through. If you don’t, you’re making the wrong decision because at such a late age, 38, coming back, you have to make that mental commitment to achieve what your body can give you and it’s not going to be easy. And to make sure he was in the right place mentally was what I kept harping on, and he kept reassuring me that he was ready to do it.”
2010 (age 34): On his 2009 car accident and revelations of marital infidelity
“I was living a life of a lie, I really was. And I was doing a lot of things that hurt a lot of people. And stripping away denial and rationalization, you start coming to the truth of who you really are, and that can be very ugly. I hurt a lot of people, not just my wife—my friends, my colleagues, the public, kids who looked up to me. There were a lot of people that thought I was a different person, and my actions were not according to that. That’s why I had to apologize. I was so sorry for what I had done. I hurt [my family] the most. Those are the two people in my life who I’m closest to and to say the things that I’ve done, truthfully to them, [it was] very painful. But then again, when you face it and you start conquering it and you start living up to it, the strength that I feel now. I’ve never felt that type of strength.”
Watch This
Take a deeper dive
WHEN TIGER WAS A CUB
Woods at 17
HELLO, WORLD!
Tiger speaks before his 1996 pro debut
ONE STRANGE INTERVIEW
An awkward chat with Curtis Strange
2015 (age 39): On his finest year
“I peaked at 11, to be honest with you. I went 36-0 that year, never lost a tournament, all in California. And I probably had the cutest girlfriend in all of sixth grade. And I had straight A’s—no A-minuses. They were all perfect A’s. I peaked at 11, and I’ve been trying to get back to that since.”
2015 (age 39): On the pressure of major tournaments
“From my very first one to now, it’s the same. I want to win these championships. I love them. I love playing them. My first major was the Masters, and my first U.S. Open at Shinnecock, and then obviously the British at St. Andrews. For me it was a pretty good introduction to Major Championship golf, and I’ve loved it ever since. There’s pressure, of course there’s pressure. You’re trying to win the biggest events against the best fields and that’s the fun part.”
2016 (age 40): On back pain
“I was practicing out back at my house. I hit a flop shot over the bunker, and it just hit the nerve. And I was down. I didn’t bring my cell phone. I was out there practicing, and I end up on the ground and I couldn’t call anybody, and I couldn’t move. Well, thank god my daughter’s a daddy’s girl and she always wants to hang out. She came out and said, ‘Daddy, what are you doing lying on the ground?’ I said, ‘Sam, thank goodness you’re here. Can you go tell the guys inside to try and get the cart out, to help me back up?’ She says, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘My back’s not doing very good.’ She says, ‘Again?’”
2016 (age 40): On the Ryder Cup
“I’m still playing for pride even whether I’m playing for money or not. I take pride in the work I do out there, and [the Ryder Cup] is no exception. Whether there’s cash involved or not, you’re always paying for pride.”
2018 (age 42): On overcoming injury
“As an athlete, we’re always pushing ourselves. The best ones push themselves beyond human limits. And that’s what separates them. They go through pain; they go through different things that most people are unwilling to do. We’re pushing the boundaries of our bodies and minds and, unfortunately, a lot of times we go over the edge and we break down. But thank God there’s modern science to fix us and put us back together again. I am a walking miracle. I got a second chance on life.”
2019 (age 43): On dealing with caddy frustration at the 2000 Masters (Golf tip #1)
“I hit [a tee shot] halfway to Hawaii. All of a sudden [caddy] Stevie [Williams] suggests I hit iron off the tee and I did not say nice words to him at that time. So I went ahead and hit iron. And I had a simple 4-iron to the green and Stevie wanted me to hit it up the right side of the hole and I said, ‘Why do I want to go up the right side?’ So I started it out to left over the ocean to cut it back and it just went long over the back and I got up and down for a bogey. I knew something was up, but I didn’t say a word.”
2019 (age 43): On the importance of mentally preparing for a difficult course (Golf tip #2)
“When we came up here last week to take a look at the golf course, we realized, ‘Holy cow, you have to drive your ball here.’ It’s important not only to drive it long, but you have to drive it straight. Balls that are hit into the rough, you can’t advance to the greens because the majority of the greens are elevated. If they dry out by the weekend, it’s going to be hard to hold the ball on the green. I remember in 2002, by the weekend, they were lightning [fast]. Guys were making bogeys left and right. It’s going to be easy to make bogeys here and hard to make birdies. The leading score by the end of the week is not going to be that deep. Especially since they changed the par. It was a par-71, now a par-70. We played that hole yesterday and hit a 5-wood short of the green, then hit a 3-wood short of the green. On a par-4, I normally don’t hit a 3-wood short of the green, so it’s playing long.”
2020 (age 44): On his thought process for crucial putts (Golf tip #3)
“I was a bit nervous about [one particular] putt. I knew it was left-center all day, but I just wanted to get a little confirmation. So I called [caddie] Joey [LaCava] in there, and he looked at me, like, ‘What the hell are you doing? It’s a left-center putt.’ And I looked at him with a stern eye, like, ‘Just read the putt.’ And I just got committed to, again, left-center, make sure that I put a lot of right hand in this putt, make sure that toe releases, I release the hell out of it. And I did, and it’s such a good feeling when I put a lot of right hand into a putt and release it.”
2020 (age 44): On celebrating victory with his children
“To see my son, Charlie, there, open arms, come rushing at me and jump in my arms. And that’s when the emotions just came flooding out. And I started crying. And Charlie was squeezing me and kept getting tighter and tighter and tighter. And then I looked at him, squeezed him again. Then my mom’s there, and she’s patting me on my back and kept saying she’s so proud of me, my dad would be so proud if he were here. She said, ‘I love you,’ and I said, ‘I love you, too, Mom.’ And then there’s [Woods’ daughter] Sam. she doesn’t like the spotlight. She can’t stand it. So when we hugged, I turned her away from everybody and made sure that she was sheltered. And we just had a little moment together. And she just squeezed harder and didn’t have to say anything.”
Alan Goldsher is Collectable’s Head of Content, as well as the author of 16 books.
Dig Deeper
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HOT TIP
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